Purgatory
by tatsuroshi-san
Summary: Neither Heaven or Hell, in the time after a major apocalypse, the world as we know it now doesn't exsist and people struggle to survive in space... yet trouble brews once more... READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!
1. Chapter 0

This is the Purgatory Chapter Meter... check back here when you wan to know how far the chapters have come along and were I am in editing and whatnot. There will also be times when certain chapters will bedown for re-editing. Also a **key thing is that chapter 1 and chapter 2 CAN BE READ EITHER ONE FIRST.** So it's okay if you don't read the first chapter first. If you read what's written so far... they're basically introductory chapters for a few characters, so it's alright to read them in either direction. **In fact,** Chapter one is basically finished. _**So read away folks!**_

Remember, if you've got any questions or comments drop us a line at anonlinestory at yahoo dot com (for some reason, if I type out the email address, it doesn't seem to want to save the files correctly).

**Purgatory Chapter Meter:**

Chapter 1: _Engines Online _**Power ****100**- - - - - - - - - -

Chapter 2: _Weapons Charged_ **Power 100 **- - - - - - - - - -

Chapter 3: _Weapons Charged_ **Power 100 **- - - - - - - - - -

Chapter 4: Uninstalled

Chapter 5: Charging Weapons _Power 015_ -

Chapter 6: Uninstalled

Chapter 7: Unequiped


	2. Chapter 1

**_Tatsuroshi-san here, just wanted to give some credit for ideas and whatnot. First off, this story WAS being written by two people, but now we're back down to just me. I still will be giving credit to my friend. He is the creator of Xaelth and the Sytherian empire... lots of love! _**

**_I also want to give some credit to a few show's and all the people that have created them. Cowboy Bebop, Appleseed, and Firefly (Serenity). They are what got to start toying with the idea of space and it's inhabitants. There are probably a number of other shows that are similar but these are it for now. I'll gladly give credit if there are others later on or someone brings it to my attention. However, all characters, items, and locations are of my own (and my friend's) overactive imaginations. Anything out there that are the same or similar are coincidental._**

**_Anyway, enjoy out creation and let us know what you think at our email address... this site apparently will not let me do that unless I want to make everything Italicized and bold (it's "anonlinestory" at yahoo).  
_**

**Purgatory:**

Space, an incredible void of air and light, only the stars lined the everlasting walls of the universe. Forever man had looked up at them wondering whether or not there was life among the planets that lined our little Milky Way. Earth, the only planet that people once remembered to have blue skies and rich soils. A long time ago, people remembered peace, until they came along and sucked the life from Earth and left it for dead. Since then, human kind had been forced underground or out into space to find their way in the deep void. Three factions had formed and a never-ending war sprung from hate between them wages on.

**Chapter One:**

Space, so vast and open, full of opportunity, yet cold and unforgiving to those who are foolish enough to take it for granted. Xaelth stood within his private quarters, gazing out his re-enforced window. I was large enough for him to nearly stand in. He liked it that way, knowing there was only six inches of weapons-resistant glass seperating him from the icy vacuum of space. It reminded him of his person fighter-class ship. He sighed and wished he was back in his fighter right now.

Xaelth pressed the button to lower the blast shield and stepped away from the window towards his desk deep in thought. He thought back to the time when he was starting his training in the Scytherian Naval-Space Academy. His first instructor told Xaelth that his cocky attitude would earn him nothing more than an obituary. Then he remembered how only a few short years later, he had "accidentally" turned the safeties off and destroyed his instructor's ship during his on-and-one dogfight that was supposed to be Xaelth's final test.

Xaelth sat at his desk and put his feet up. He looked at the small ring he wore on the middle finger on his left hand. The ring itself was nothing more than a solid platinum band that had an intricate pattern carved around it. To the normal man, this ring was nothing more than an extravagant decoration... but it was not simple decoration.

Deep in relaxation, Xaelth had taken off his ring and was examining it as he leaned back in his chair. He let the memories of how he ran off from the empire to join and elite vigilante group flood his mind. He remembered how he had earned that ring from them as a sign of superiority for being one of their top hunters. Xaelth would have fell asleep then and there had it not been for the quiet, yet still disturbingly annoying, intercom alert to suddenly go off.

Suddenly reality rushed back to him–no longer was he dreaming of his past days as a vigilante. Xaelth, Grand Marshal of the 6th Scytherian Acquisition Fleet, sat up at his desk and pressed the intercom button.

"Yes commander? This had better be good as I was about to take a nap."

"Grand Marshall, we have located the fugitive and are only minutes away from being within visual range."

Xaelth grinned to himself.

"Has the counsel issued a pardon?"

"No sir."

"Very well commander, I shall be there shortly."

Xaelth stood from his desk.

"Today would be a good day," he mused to himself.

If the council doesn't issue a pardon, Xaelth had authorization to apprehend the fugitive using any means necessary. In these situations, all the council needed as proof that the job was done was the criminal's body­–or at least most of it.

He put his ring back on his finger and decided he would personally deal with this fugitive. He could only sit in the captain's chair for so long before going crazy. He needed a good dogfight and he needed one soon.

Xaelth stood up, and adjusted his uniform then started for the automatic door to his room. Before he left, he stopped to admire the painting of his ship that hung on the wall to the right of the door with a freshly polished gold plaque displaying the name "Harvester" below it.

The Harvester is a medium class Scytherian battleship that has been specially modified by Xaelth to hunt, capture, and kill various criminals of the Scytherian Empire. The ship has the ability to sustain a crew of no more than one hundred people, but Xaelth chose to keep a skeleton crew of twenty. Ten to fly and maintain the ship and ten to fly the ten fighters held within the ship's docking bay. Armed with the latest weapons that ranged from non-lethal weapons meant to ensnare and immobilize, to weapons of the maximum lethality. In addition to the docking bay, the ship was equipped with a holding bay designed to hold and incapacitate up to five captured fighters, or one medium frigate. Likewise, the ship had enough small cells to detain each person found within each ship they captured.

As Xaelth left his quarters and headed toward the bridge, the ship suddenly lurched to the side. After he regained his balance Xaelth decided to pick up the pace and ran the rest of the way to the bridge.

"Grand Marshall on deck!" Said the first in commade upon Xaelth's entrance.

"What the hell just happened commander!"

"It appears that our prey has a few tricks up its sleeves sir."

"What sort of tricks?"

"He was able to lay a small mine-field in our path. The mines appear to be stealthed, tracking mines. They appear as floating space debris, but we got too close to one and were forced to detonate it before it could reach us."

Xaelth moved to his captain's chair and sat down. Gazing out of the view-screen, he could definitely see the space debris. Massive clusters of rock and ice, mixed with the remains of a large space battle from decades ago­–this whole sector was know for its massive collections of debris. The mines could be anywhere.

"Commander, have my ship prepped for launch. The Harvester could never make it through this junk without taking massive damage. After I leave, make out prey think we gave up. I shall lure the fool out of this debris."

"What if he doesn't take the bait sir?"

"Well commander, if he doesn't take the bait then I guess I'll just have to have all the fun myself and bring back what's left."

"Yes Grand Marshall! Your ship will be ready by the time you arrive at docking bay 3."

"Commander–I know this if your second week serving as my second, and believe me, I'm very happy with your skills thus far–but what have I told you about calling me that? I hate that title with a passion."

"­y-yes Gran–"

Xaelth quickly drew his laser pistol and pointed it at the commander's head.

"What was that commander?"

"Yes sir!" Said the commander who quickly composed himself while many of the crew that had served with Xaelth longer merely chuckled and Xaelth put his gun back in his holster.

"That's what I like about you commander, you're a quick learner." Xaelth said as he smiled and patted his first in command on the back on his way out.

Xaelth made his way through the long corridors of his ship with a slight spring in his step. He loved his fighter more then his battleship. More so, he loved the more intense feeling he always got when dog-fighting.

When Xaelth walked through the doors to the docking bay, he stopped to gaze upon his ship aptly named "The Reaper." The main part of the ship was long and narrow, while three blade-like wings extended from the rear of the ship in a triangular fashion. One from the top-center and two from the opposite side of the hull, angled down. Originally this hip was built fro racing, but Xaelth had it modified for battle. However, he hated missiles, Xaelth saw no sport in simply firing a missile had having it track its target. So each wing had two imbedded high power laser cannons. While the body of the ship had five more, two on each side of the ship just in front of the cockpit, and one on top of the ship a few feet in front of the cockpit as well. The power of each laser could be adjusted by the pilot to fire blasts weak enough to immobilize the target, or strong enough to cut right through the strongest of metals.

Naturally, Xaelth had to outfit the ship with a power generator capable of handling the high amounts of power this ship now demanded. While the generator is one of the best in existence, its power was only enough to support all the lasers set on full power for no more than ten minutes without then requiring all the laser to be shut down to allow the generator to recharge. While the ship is fast, it can still be seriously damaged by an even faster missile, so Xaelth had eight small point-defense ejectors installed on the back of the ship that would launch small pods that emitted a signal that would attempt to draw the missile towards it instead of the ship.

Xaelth climbed up the ladder leaning against the side of his ship and hopped into the cockpit. He settled within the leather chair and buckled his harness and tapped some buttons on the console.

"Computer, run a systems check,"

The computer beeped in acknowledgement and started to check over its systems.

"Life support: Nominal, Computer: Nominal, Engine: Nominal, Generator: nominal, Weapons: Nominal, All systems: Nominal," the computer replied in a digitized female voice.

"Commander, all systems are go, open the bay doors,"

"Yes sir, opening bay doors."

Soon the white light that typically filled the docking bay was replaced by the darkness and slowly spinning yellow lights. The ladder that was propped against the Reaper was retracted within the floor as the Reaper started to expel some excess gasses in preparation for flight.

Xaelth pressed a few buttons and took hold of the two flight sticks located next to each hand. The Reaper slowly started to lift off the deck as the docking bay doors were slowly opening. When the doors were open, Xaelth pushed forward slightly on the flight sticks and the Reaper flew out of the Harvester.

The Reaper was fast approaching the debris field, and out of the corner of his eye, Xaelth noticed a hidden mine reveal itself. The mine had stopped rotating and was now following the ship and closing the distance between them as each second passed.

He wondered how advanced these mines truly were. Xaelth pushed forward on the sticks and shot the Reaper straight into the debris field. Looking back, he noticed that four more mines had locked on to him and were still gaining on him, though not as quickly as before.

Xaelth dodged and weaved his ship between pieces of debris and asteroids. Had an inexperienced pilot flew in this mess, he wouldn't have lasted very long. Off in the distance, Xaelth noticed the remains of what once was a massive and powerful ship. Now it was nothing more than a slowly spinning husk of a ship, anything of value long ago looted by pirates. He altered his course towards the dull brown remains and took note of the hold that went clear through the husk. Taking a quick scan, Xaelth saw that the inside of the ship had been pretty much stripped clean, including most of the metal that had once made up the various decks of the ship. It would be tight, but he saw a path that he could take the Reaper through inside the ship in hopes of shaking the mines.

The Reaper flew into the derelict ship and immediately started to fly to the opposite end. The sudden turn caused one of the mines to fly into the side of the ship and the resulting explosion took another one of the mines with it. However, the explosion also widened the hole in the shell of the ship, letting the remaining three mines in. With the mines in close pursuit, Xaelth piloted the mines out of the hole in the nose of the derelict ship. Once back out in the debris field, he looked around for my ways to shake the remaining mines. Then he noticed tow asteroids that were close to colliding to his left.

Xaelth engaged the afterburners and shot towards the asteroids, narrowly avoiding the various pieces of debris. As the Reaper got closer and closer to the asteroids , Xaelth saw that they were nearly about to collide with each other.

"Hmm–This is going to be close," Xaelth said aloud to himself.

Xaelth tried diverting all power to the engines, pushing the limits of the made for speed ship. The Reaper shot right between the asteroids, not taking any damage what so ever, but the Reaper passed so close to the asteroids that the engine kicked up a plume of dust on each one before they collided together. The first two asteroids rammed straight into the larger asteroid and blew it completely in half, while the final mine flew through the two halves that was once a larger asteroid.

"Now–how to get ride of the last one," Xaelth said to himself.

After running a quick scan, he found the fugitive hiding behind an asteroid fie hundred kilometers to his right. Xaelth turned his ship towards his target and rushed towards it at full speed with the mine in tow. Rapidly dodging some debris his way and blasting the rest, Xaelth got closer and closer to the fugitive, who must have detected Xaelth flying towards him as the fugitive circled around the asteroid and was preparing to a fight.

With only fifty kilometers left between Xaelth and the fugitive, Xaelth shot one of his laser cannons at the fugitive, but taking care to miss slightly and hit the asteroid behind him, causing him to turn his ship slightly to avoid the blast. With the fugitive distracted, Xaelth suddenly banked his ship and cut power to his engine, bringing him to a quick stop. Too bad the mine's computer had not anticipated that maneuver. The mine rocketed forward, right under Xaelth's ship, and towards its original owner. Catching on too late, the fugitive only had time to eject his cockpit and ride the explosion from what was once his ship.

After the explosion had dissipated and went away, Xaelth flew over to the semi-charred, yet still functional, escape pod and tractored it into his cramped storage bay.

"I hope your escape pod's oxygen generator isn't too damaged–it's a long flight back to my battleship." Xaelth said while grinning, as he flicked off the switch that sent his voice through to the speaker located in the storage bay.

Xaelth wished he had been kidding about the long flight back to the Reaver. While he told them to hold position and wait for him, he knew they would have to move to avoid the constantly moving pieces of scrap and asteroids.

"Bah, they probably moved outside the edge of the debris field."

Xaelth sighed and switched on the auto-pilot and set the ship to lock on to the Reaver's coded beacon. Then he flicked on another switch and a detailed scanned image if the contents of his holding bay popped on screen. He noticed that his bounty's vitals we're starting to slow.

"Guess his life support systems were damaged. Well you're just lucky I'm bored." Xaelth flicked another switch which activated the holding bay's life support. Then he reached for the cockpit's small hand held com-system and held it close to his mouth.

"You awake back there?" Xaelth said nonchalantly.

"No thanks to you–"

"Actually–you do owe me thanks. If it wasn't for me and my working life support system, you wouldn't be breathing. That is, unless you like to breath re-circulated carbon-dioxide."

"If it wasn't for you, I'd still be in my ship right now–"

"Point taken. It's nothing personal though, I'm just doing my job. The same job… again and again." Xaelth said

"You don't sound to thrilled about it, why don't let me go?"

"Hah, just because I'm bored with the job doesn't mean I'm bored with the credits."

"Hmph, I never thought a grand marshal would be greedy."

"How little you truly know then, and you know what? I don't even care what you did. How do you like them apples?"

"Why are you even talking to me then?"

"I'm bored."

"You're bored! Why in the hell do you think I'm going to amuse you? You blew up my ship, captured me, nearly killed me, and now you're going to turn me into your government. Which I'm not even part of I might add, and for what! Credits. Just credits."

"You confuse me for one of those rag-tag bounty hunters. Catching you is part of my job and I will get my credits no matter if I catch you or not, and because I caught you I don't have to pay some filthy hunter the bounty we put on the head. I guess that means I'll be keeping those creds for myself… so yes, you're right afterall. I will be getting credits for catching you."

"Whatever asshole, you do realize they are going to execute me just because I didn't want to become part of your government!" the captive pilot yelled.

"Of course I do. But you seem to think that just because you are not part of our government that you can kill our citizens."

"Your 'citizens' were soldiers that were trying to kill me and force me out of my house."

"Where in lies the problem, it was not your house, that house belongs to citizens of the Scytherian Empire. Seeing as how you admitted you were not part of our government, you were trespassing on that land… and you killed our citizens."

"Out of SELF DEFENCE!"

"It doesn't matter, it says here we gave you ample time to leave our space. You ignored our warning."

"Your government gave me two days!"

"You obviously knew what would happen, seeing as how you had plenty of weapons at your disposal. You should have just left. Now you are here, and soon you will be no more."

Quickly growing tired of his guest, Xaelth shut off the comm device and put it back in its holster. He sat back in his chair and double checked the ship's auto-pilot course. Seeing that it had locked on to the Harvester's coded signal Xaelth relaxed and allowed sleep to find its way to him.

Xaelth awoke to the sound of his first officer's voice over the cockpit's comm.

"This is the Scytherian battleship Harvester contacting the Reaper, please respond Reaper."

"It's ok Commander, I'm here. I was just taking a small nap."

"Welcome back Sir, how was the hunt?"

"It went fine, the fool thought the debris field would stop me and left me a few more surprises inside the debris."

"Mines?"

"Yeah, but he didn't expect me to use one against him. He must have thought I was playing chicken with him because he started to charge right for me. He never saw the mine that was following behind me. At the last second, I pulled up, he flew right into the mine and ejected. Open up the docking bay and ready the brig, I'm coming in and I'm bringing a guest."

Xaelth slowly flew the Reaper into the docking bay and landed it. Then he flipped a switch that opened the cargo bay and dropped the escape pod to the deck below. After he called in some guards, he opened the escape pod and pointed his gun towards the pod's pilot.

"Get up. It's time to go."

The pilot just looked at him lazily and laughed.

"Heh heh, in a few seconds, I will already be gone."

Then the captive pilot started to violently convulse in his seat.

"Get me a med-unit NOW! This one will NOT get away that easily!"

Shortly after Xaelth called for them, the med-unit was at the escape pod, pulling out the pilot and setting him on a special stretcher surrounded by many complex machines, then hooked the pilot up to these various devices and machinery. When the members of the med-unit had finished the pilot was no longer in control of his life. Machines were breathing for him, stimulating his heart, cleansing the toxins from his bloodstream that the pilot had ingested to end his own life.

Xaelth held up his hand before a member of the med-unit could put the brain-suppresser, a device that basically puts the subject into a deep sleep.

"Wait." Xaelth then looked down at the pilot.

"Your name is the only thing you truly own right now, and that is the one thing I will not take from you. I will not have my men look up your name while you are on this ship. Your name will remain yours. So, while you stay on my ship you will be referred to as Bounty 3632."


	3. Chapter 2

**_Tatsuroshi-san here, just wanted to give some credit for ideas and whatnot. First off, this story WAS being written by two people, but now we're back down to just me. I still will be giving credit to my friend. He is the creator of Xaelth and the Sytherian empire... lots of love! _**

**_I also want to give some credit to a few show's and all the people that have created them. _Cowboy Bebop, ****Appleseed_, and _Firefly (Serenity)_. They are what got to start toying with the idea of space and it's inhabitants. There are probably a number of other shows that are similar but these are it for now. I'll gladly give credit if there are others later on or someone brings it to my attention. However, all characters, items, and locations are of my own (and my friend's) overactive imaginations. Anything out there that are the same or similar are coincidental._**

**_Anyway, enjoy out creation and let us know what you think at our email address... this site apparently will not let me do that unless I want to make everything Italicized and bold (it's "anonlinestory" at yahoo).  
_**

**Purgatory:**

Space, an incredible void of air and light, only the stars lined the everlasting walls of the universe. Forever man had looked up at them wondering whether or not there was life among the planets that lined our little Milky Way. Earth, the only planet that people once remembered to have blue skies and rich soils. A long time ago, people remembered peace, until they came along and sucked the life from Earth and left it for dead. Since then, human kind had been forced underground or out into space to find their way in the deep void. Three factions had formed and a never-ending war sprung from hate between them wages on.

**Chapter Two:**

The sun was bright like it always was, shining through the tinted window that hooded over the cockpit of an old racer. It was a small ship that carried two pilots and was used for land racing. Its hull was a deep black red, well worn from its many flights. Its fuselage was long and narrow; with a rounded top were the pilots' rode. The wings of the ship spread outward perpendicular to the fuselage. Its engines were standard in appearance, yet in this time of chaos and greed, standard just wasn't good enough. The ship rotated slightly, the sun glinting off the side, revealing an ancient text painted roughly along the nose. Kajitori.

The pilot stretched out her hands, reaching up and touching the glass that surrounded her. With a yawn, she tapped at the touch sensitive screen set directly before her. The sensory buttons she pressed blinked once then the rest of the ship began to roar to life. The engines whined as the turbines within them began to spin. The girl yawned again, rubbing her eyes, her hair falling into her them after doing so. After brushing it away, she reached out and grabbed her headset. Putting it on, the orange tinted goggles made the glare of the sun seem less menacing as it did before. Her hair was fairly short, rounding her small tanned face, with a short braid lining her left cheek; it was as dark as the void of space that she drifted in. She wore a loose fitting long sleeved shirt underneath a worn out collared shirt, its sleeves rolled to her elbows. Both were a similar deep red brown. Her pants were loose fitting as well, a modified 9mm pistol strapped to her left thigh. There were other weapons too, but the pistol was her favorite.

"Wakey wakey," she said quietly to the computer. The inside of the ship was made for racing. The pilot was able to sit back in the chair, yet when flying, they were forced to learn into the console in the center, as if riding a sports motorcycle from the 90s. Even the steering was similar to the ancient bikes. The second pilot seat was mainly a secondary set of eyes for the main pilot, maximizing the ship's speed and maneuverability. The console blinked as the engines reached their full charge. The ship drifted near a number of large asteroids that had no destination in mind themselves.

The pilot leaned forward and set a pair of gloved hands onto the angled steering bars of the ship. It whined impatiently, like an old racehorse wanting to get back on the track and relive its glory days. She yawned again, blinking drowsily. A small carrier ship passed by suddenly at high speed.

"There you are kiddo," she said, a smile broadening across her face. She twisted the right handle, revving the engine. Quickly taping a button on the console, a small timer flashed on by the window corner; thirty minutes. Every mission she took, she always tried to beat herself. Her crew always told her that she would get herself killed one of these days from rushing, but where was the fun in taking your time?

"Here we go!" And the racer jettisoned from its position by the asteroids and straight toward the small carrier. The carrier's engine flashed with power and forced the ship away from her position. The girl chuckled, "gonna have to do better then that."

The back of the carrier suddenly blew open, the cover blowing off to its sides, revealing a mass number of projectile missiles. Before the girl could even gasp, a forth of the missiles launched and headed straight for her. Left and right she leaned, the sharp turn sensors around her constantly sending messages to the secondary engines throughout the ship. Like the ancient motorcycles, the ship leaned in the directions in which she herself did. But unlike them, the ships steering was much more precise than leaning from one direction to the other. The window flashed with a number of bright red circles, signifying imminent danger. Three flew near enough to her position that she could almost read the logo across the smuggled missile.

She weaved from side to side, twisting and turning through space. She tapped at the center console, quickly moving her hand back to the steering. Glancing down at the console, the image of a large gautling gun shined. She could hear the weaponry switching within the front hull of her ship. The missiles followed closely behind her now. Taking a deep breath, she leaned back, pulling the steering handles back with her. Kajitori groaned as it completely flipped upside down. Taking her foot off the gas and pushing down on the air brake, the ship stopped and completely flipped in place behind half the missiles. Running the digital cross hairs on the window, she pulled the triggers on both handles.

_–ratatattatattatatata–_

The gautling gun rattled as it sent a flurry of shells into a half dozen missiles, each blowing up by the sudden impact of its tiny assailants. The rest followed closely behind her as she continued to twist and turn toward the carrier. She tapped the console once more, finding a type of cannon. The whole front half of the ship split horizontally into two, the bottom half coming down and locking noisily into place. The console blinked as the cannon charged with a dull whirr. The carrier passed an enormous asteroid, flying completely out of her view.

"Damn," she hissed, letting her boot rest a bit heavier on the gas. Flying straight toward the edge of the asteroid, the red targets on her window blinked as they gained on her. Nearer and nearer she flew toward the asteroid, the missiles gaining even closer now–

–the console blinked with a soft blip; the cannon was charged. Closer and closer she flew toward the asteroid, sweat dripping off her brow. She pulled the trigger once and with a sudden flash of light, the cannon shot out a steady stream of blue light straight toward the asteroid. Dust and rock flared up from the impact of the cannon's blast. Soon after the small racer flew straight into the flare up of debris, the missiles following close behind. One by one they blew from the impact of flying rocks; each one blowing close enough to shake the entire ship as debris clattered across the windows.

The window was clear of any red targets that chased her, yet her main target was nowhere to be seen. She slowed her ship to a crawl, scanning the asteroid and the space around it. Her headset crackled suddenly, a young male voice fading in and out. Tapping the earpiece, the voice cleared out. _Old piece of–_

"Reilly! Reilly come in!"

"Takumi (Tah-kuu-me)? Takumi what's up?" She shouted into the receiver, straining to hear through the constant bursts of static. "The target–_buzz_–within–_fwizz_–you just shot–" With another burst of static, the voice was gone. _Damn it_, she thought to herself. Glancing around her surrounds, there was only space and asteroids. Her eyes drifted around until finally she saw the scar she had drawn across the face of the nearest one. A large hole was at the end of it. Revving up her engines, she shot toward the asteroid. Flying straight into the passage; it led deep into the center of it. Slowing down, Reilly shut off her main engines leaving the air pumps online. Pulses of air from certain locations on the outer shell of the ship forced it into different directions, yet it was precise around the tight corners. Around another bend and there was the coverless carrier, docked atop a larger ship with no logo. Reilly chuckled and puffed her racer over to the ship and landed it next to the small carrier on the deck. The console blinked with atmospheric information; Nitrogen, Hydrogen, and all the other things that made up the normal air that everyone breathed. The window around her popped open with a mechanical swish, letting fresh air into the cockpit. With a deep breath, she unhooked her buckle and leapt from Kajitori to the deck.

It was odd, in the very center of the asteroid, yet there was oxygen and gravity. _Probably a grav generator_ she thought to herself; just another object that costs quite a pretty penny on the usual market. A half dozen men rushed out to greet her as she walked casually toward the open docking bay. The men surrounded her, nothing but steel pipes as weapons. She stopped, putting a hand on her hip and smiled. _Poor sons-of-bitches_.

"A welcome party huh?" Her dark brown eyes glittering from the ships floodlights. One raised a pipe over their head, about to lunge at her. "Woah woah woah wait!" She shouted raising her hands up toward the first attacker. He stopped in his tracks. The others shifted their grips and prepared to attack her, yet idiotically, they waited for her to continue.

"I just wanted to let you know, that I'm not armed-"

"Then what the hell do you call that strapped to your leg then?" One interrupted from her left, pointing at the pistol.

"Oh, you misunderstood me kiddo," she said glancing over, hands still raised. "You see, I'm not gonna be armed when I kick your sorry ass'," the men chuckled, glancing back and forth at one another.

"In fact, I'm not even gonna touch your weapons either," they raised their pipes in reply.

"So then by your responses, there ain't any hard feelings right?" She said smugly, before the first finally charged with a cry. He was about a foot taller than her, and was obviously much more masculine, like most of the men. He swung his pipe straight down for her head, missing horridly as she sidestepped out of the way. Still in the downward movement, Reilly grabbed his pipe gripping hand and quickly with her other, chopped the very center of his face, breaking his nose with a dull crack. Still gripping his pipe hand; she tugged at the limp body and held him up with her other. _Takes two to tango_, she thought, her smile broadening. Two more charged at her now, diagonally from the front. With a smirk, she quickly swung the man's pipe from side to side, hitting both directly in the head. Finally dropping the heavy unconscious body, Reilly threw her right foot straight back and into the gut of another attacker. One came at her from the left, swinging the pipe at her left shoulder. Catching the attackers arm in mid attack with a high block, she gave him a hard right hook in the gut, putting her entire weight into her fist. The man gagged then puked over her right shoulder, luckily missing her entire body, and finally crumpling to the ground. The last simply stared at her as she turned toward him, fists raised in a half moon stance. It was obvious she studied some type of martial arts–

–His hands started to shake–

–She smiled–

Dropping the pipe, the last conscious member broke in a gasping run toward the main portion of the ship. Relaxing, Reilly drew her pistol and took a moment to aim–

–BLAM! He fell grasping at his leg. Reilly jogged up to him, leaning over his wounded leg, sighing at the blood pooling around it. Kneeling down next to him, she tore off his sleeve and wrapped it tightly around the wound.

"Sorry I had to do that, but you broke the deal kiddo," she began, "But I'll be sure to have someone take a look at that and the bump on your head for you later," he stared up at her confused. With a quick punch straight down, the man was in the dark. Standing up, she glanced back at the men sprawled across the deck. _Damn_, she thought to herself glancing back down at the man she had shot. _Maybe I should have asked them where their cap is_. With a shrug, she ran straight for the docking bay.

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The men ran about the small metallic halls, searching frantically for their intruder. The interior was almost like an ancient submarine from WWII, yet it had its differences. A gruff voice shrieked behind a small door. A few came rushing out from behind it.

"We better find her soon, the commanders in one of his moods again," the men all shuttered and ran in different directions. The halls were calm for a moment, red lights flashing on and off reiterating that the situation was apparently dire. A pair of booted legs came down from the ceiling. Dropping down from an open airshaft, Reilly glanced around and headed toward the door. _This is too easy_, she smirked. Taking a deep breath, Reilly unholstered her pistol, pulling the top back and making sure a round was chambered. She pounded on the metal door twice then opened it soon after, stepping to one side of the doorway. Pointing the weapon into the room, all she found was a decorated office with a wide metallic desk and a large chair behind it. The back faced her as she quickly entered the room and shut the door. Swiftly making her way up to the desk, the chair turned to face her. The captain was looking down at a few reports as he did so.

"This better be goo–" he began, looking up to find a gun barrel directly pointed at his forehead. Reilly smiled. The captain seemed short in his large chair. Compared to the image she had seen of him, he had grown a beard that concealed a scar that supposedly ran across half his upper lip and down to his chin. He was fairly thin yet muscular, but Reilly doubted that he could do much harm to her in a fistfight. He wore a fairly dark and formal looking suit, which compared with the other crewmen, who simply wore ragged and mismatched clothing; it was obvious he was "the cap". She took a few more steps toward him.

"Captain Sharidin I presume?" He frowned in response. "Boy kiddo, your crew made this way too easy for me."

"Is that so?" He said raising a brow, obviously struggling to keep himself composed.

"That's right, now if you could please stand up and turn around–"

"Is that an antique pistol?" He interrupted, staring straight at the barrel. "Yeah, but you see, back in the day, this little bugger could blow straight through your head at this range. Now today? I pull the trigger, your head wouldn't even exist anymore." Sharidin shifted in his seat sweat beading on his forehead. "Interesting what a modified slug with a little gunpowder can do no?" With a quick tilt of her head and a wave of her pistol, the captain slowly stood up with his hands raised. Soon the captain's hands were tied behind his back and the two made their way through his ship. The crew was nowhere to be seen strangely enough and those that had appeared didn't dare fire at the intruder. Quickly knocking them out and continuing on their way, the two had eventually made it out to the docking bay where Kajitori awaited. It was completely surrounded by a number of the captain's faithful crewmen. _Persistent little buggers aren't they?_ Reilly thought to herself as she reached out and grabbed Sharidin's collar. She pressed her pistol to his head as they walked over toward Kajitori. The crewmen quickly stepped aside, unwilling to take any heroic action to save their beloved captain.

Quickly tossing Sharidin into the back seat of Kajitori, Reilly hopped into the front and revved up the engines. "Don't try anything stupid," Reilly began, "the panels in back are all shut down. If you start punchin' away at buttons, you'll probably end up pressing the emergency eject while we're out in space."

Putting on her headset, she glanced out the closing hatch and gave the frustrated crew a quick wave and a wink. Many of them ran back into the docking bay, perhaps hoping to catch them in space. The rest simply watched in horror, unable to shake themselves from their position. With a blast from the engines, the racer jerked forward and off the ship.

"Well kiddo, sorry your crew didn't do much to keep me from swiping you," the captain began to laugh in response, slowly at first than it grew much more maniacal and over done. Reilly glanced at her rear view mirror, wondering if there were any other reasons to why the Scytherian Empire wanted him.

"You think they're that stupid? With the technology on that ship alone, we'd be hunted down and killed for it," he cackled.

"That so?"

"Of course. We smuggle the weapons. Without us, those fuckers would have microchips coming out of their asses."

Reilly smirked at the thought, cheap mass-produced weapons that are later reprogrammed to be the best-damned weapons one could buy on the market. "Not bad," she said in response.

"I would assume that we have only a few more minutes to get clear of the ship," Reilly raised a brow. As she opened her mouth to question him further, it had suddenly dawned on her what the captain had meant. _Holy fuck! That bastard's crew is gonna–_

–Reilly pressed her boot down on the accelerator, pushing the racer as fast as she possibly could within the asteroid. Weaving side to side through the narrow passageway, Reilly tapped at the main console, opening up all channels to the main ship, Draken.

"Takumi! Takumi pick up! Anyone pick up damn it!" she shouted into the headset. Only static echoed back. "Fuck," she said to herself. Tapping at the console a few more times, a distant voice struggled to break free from the static.

"Rei–_fwizz_–what's–_buzz_–oi!"

"Takumi? Takumi, get the ship away from here! Hello? Hello!" The headset continued to burst with static. _I've got to warn them_, she thought to herself looking back at her captive. He only stared blankly back at his ship, almost as if lost within his own thoughts. Sweat trickled down from her brow as the concentrated on getting out of the asteroid.

"I can't believe your own men are gonna–"

"They understood the risks for signing up on my crew," he interrupted. "Our mission is always to finish or to die trying."

"Are you telling me your crew is still _on _that death trap?" Reilly shrieked, almost losing control of Kajitori. Sharidin stared out the window, a melancholy expression spreading across his face. "It's a shame really."

A wave of air suddenly passed the ship silently; the carrier had blown. Leaning back down, Reilly revved up her engine and shot through the rest of the tight corridor, clipping a corner here and a stalactite there. Flying out into the darkness of space, the radio softly burst with static.

"Reilly, what's–"

"No time! Get out of here now!" She shrieked, zooming past Draken. Glancing back, she saw the ancient ship turn to follow her, its engines flashing as it lurched in her direction. In slow motion, the asteroid seemed to swell up before the crevice she had drawn across it cracked and burst outward. Much of the debris flew outward, yet much more seemed to sink into it, crushing the large carrier that sat within it. With a final burst, the weaponry within the heart of the asteroid thrust outward, sending a shockwave in all directions. It quickly caught Draken and rapidly made its way to Kajitori. Reilly angled the small ship just as it reached them. The shockwave pushed the small ship forward like a toy boat in a bathtub that was relentlessly being splashed by the hands of a toddler.

The ship twisted and turned on the wave, shaking the passengers within it violently. Reilly hugged the central seat of the cockpit while Sharidin struggled to keep upright in the back; she had neglected to help him with his belt. The wave quickly passed them, continuing to spread on through endless space. The radio crackled suddenly, yet there were no clear voices. Reilly sat up a bit straighter, scanning all around them for Draken. It drifted along nearly on its side to the left of them. Turning the racer toward the ship, she glided over toward it, getting close enough for a steady radio stream. She saw Takumi in the huge cockpit window of the ship, frantically punching away at the computer.

"Reilly? Reilly come in," a gruff voice shouted.

"Jake? Holy crap, are you guys alright?"

"We're okay, a bit shaken up. Looks like the engines are out and the main computer is offline too, we're pretty much a sittin' duck here."

"Well hell, can you fix it?"

"Not with what we've got,"

Reilly sighed, ears perking to the sound of weight shifting behind her. She had completely forgotten about the cap. The Scytherian Empire had put a rather small bounty on one of their own members, but money was money and at the moment, they needed it badly.

"I'll take the prize to the manny and get the creds. Should be enough to fix that clunker, or at least get it to a planet."

"Alright, but hurry it up, we've already been runnin' low on food in the first place. Takum'll send you the location of the closest Scythe." Jake said, waving at her from the cockpit window. With a quick wave back, the console blinked with the coordinates of an Imperial ship, one of authority anyway. For as long as they had been in the trade, they had found tricks to finding the people who were able to pay off their bill. Turning Kajitori toward the direction of the ship, Reilly put the small racer into auto. She sat up and leaned back onto the seat she had installed herself years ago.

"Sorry bout your shipmates kiddo," she said taking her headset off with a sigh.

"Why do you care?" Reilly glanced at the rear mirror.

"Because kiddo, I know what its like to lose a crew." She replied closing her eyes. "And it sucks… no matter what your cause is, it just fucking sucks."

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Chit Chat was kept to a minimum as the racer flew steadily toward its target. It was visible now in the distance. It was huge and definitely Scytherian. Approximately six times larger than the Kajitori, it was obviously made by a wealthy Empire like the Scytherian. The empire's emblem stretched across its massive wings. In almost everyway possible the Scytherian had attempted to make the ship appear more dangerous than it could have possibly been. Battleship, was written all over it. Cannons of an unknown number of weapons lined its dull colored hull. Reilly sighed, she hated the larger ships. She never understood why some captains loved having a huge ship. _Then again, you know what they say about a man with a huge ship_. Putting her headset back on, Reilly tapped at the central console with a smirk.

"This is Reilly of the Kajitori, requesting an audience with the captain of the Scytherian ship." Silence responded. She tried again to no avail. Fuck, is it that hard to answer a goddamn hail? "This is Kajitori to the Scytherian ship, please respond." A small message window blinked on her console. Pressing at it, a running image of a Scytherian crewmember appeared on her window, he didn't seem too pleased. He was at least in his late twenties, early thirties. His hair was jet black, gray barely sprinkling it. It was trimmed and slicked back, completely out of his face; unlike her own. His face seemed rather young for a commanding officer of a Scytherian battleship. He wore an expression of extreme annoyance, obviously by her sudden interruption of something rather important. His eyes stared back at her like ice. The right was a deep brown, almost as black as his hair. The other was a light gray-blue, nearly white even. A gnarled scar ran diagonally over it, making the icy stare seem much more threatening.

"What do you want?" He responded coldly.

"Well mornin' sunshine," she replied with a smile. The commander's expression didn't change. "I've got a present for yuh, mister…"

"Xaelth, Grand Marshall of the sixth Scytherian Acquisition Fleet, now what exactly is it that you wanted to present to me?"

"Let me aboard and you'll see," she said with a wink.

"Really? Well the twelve laser turrets all pointed at your ship beg to differ. If you wish to keep your ship intact you'd best explain yourself immediately." He said motioning to someone off screen. Reilly smiled.

"Well mister Grand Marshall, I've got some business with your empire. I'm uploadin' the file for you now." Reaching down at the center console, she pulled up the bounty file that had been placed on Sharidin. An image popped up alongside the icy stare of the commander. Another window popped up underneath the image, full of information about the carrier and its crew.

"I see, very well then. Prepare your ship for docking procedures and allow our tractor beam to pull you into docking bay one. You will be granted food and lodging for the night. However, if you do not follow docking procedures, your ship will be shot and you will be jettisoned into space, if you go anywhere where you are not supposed to be, you will be shot. If you cross me, you will be shot. If I am bored, you will be shot. Any questions?"

Reilly laughed, "If you're bored? Now that seems a bit rash. How bout I follow docking procedures, and not be shot for your boredom? And the tractor beam ain't really necessary."

"Well, I suppose I won't shoot you for my own boredom and however the tractor is non-negotiable. You're lucky I'm feeling generous enough to give you food and lodging anyway."

"Don't need the lodging, but food is always nice. How about swappin' the bed for some fuel?"

Xaelth stared back at her for a moment, as if trying to assess whether or not she could be trusted, "Very well, once I get the cargo, I couldn't care less what you do. Shut off your engines and prepare to be tractored."

The screen shut off suddenly, leaving Reilly and her passenger to themselves. Shutting off Kajitori's engines, she sat back with a sigh, a smirk across her face. _Feisty son of a bitch isn't he?_ The ship suddenly jerked, the entire cockpit brightening up by a deep blue light. Slowly the large ship pulled them into its docking bay.

"What will you do when you've turned me in?" Sharidin asked, growing more nervous as the wings of the ship loomed over Kajitori.

"Worry about my own crew," she replied quickly, unbuckling her belt. The small racer landed roughly inside the dark gray ship. The docking bay itself was a dull and gloomy shade of gray as well. Its florescent flood lights did nothing to 'brighten' the place up. "Please wait…" flashed across her windows as the small ship finally touched down. The large gates slowly creaked closed and finally the message flashed a green "welcome" at them. Opening the cockpit, Reilly pulled Sharidin out of the ship, helping him down the side and to the cold metallic floor.

Approximately six armed men and the Grand Marshall came up to greet them. He seemed much more menacing in person than on screen. Xaelth was at least a half-foot taller than her five foot six inches. His uniform was a dark black, covered with bits of armor. A breastplate, thigh plates, and shin guards were made of some type of metal. Yet much else was unable to be seen because of a type of cape that ran down his left side, completely covering his left arm.

Reilly raised a brow, "Nice cape… thing mister Grand Mar–" he held up a hand, silencing her.

"I despise that title, so please refrain or else I will be forced to shoot you,"

"Boy kiddo, you sure like shootin' people," she replied. Xaelth nodded his head toward the prisoner. The other crewmen ran up toward him, yet Reilly stood in their path. "Woah woah woah, not so fast. I'd like to get my creds before–"

–BLAM! Smoke fizzled up from next to her right foot. Reilly took a step back, glancing up at the shooter. Xaelth stood holding his pistol out at her, "Bored?"

"Hand over the prisoner and you will see your credits," He replied coldly. Reilly glanced back at Sharidin, then back at Xaelth.

"Sorry kiddo," she said turning toward Sharidin. Picking him up, she gently pushed him toward the awaiting crewmen.

"I know you'd make the right decision," Xaelth said turning toward the door, "The guard at the door will guide you to the mess hall."

"Hold it kiddo," Xaelth paused for moment, "I want my creds,"

"And you get will them soon enough," he replied coolly, walking off. "Take the prisoner to the brig."

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After stuffing her face and pockets with as much food as possible, Reilly had spent most of her time in the docking bay. Finally she had been cleared to refuel her ship. With a loud thunk, the fuel hose had locked into place and slowly pumped food into Kajitori. "Take a nice long drink," she whispered to her racer, giving it a pat. Climbing up to the front tip of the old racer, Reilly laid back along the fuselage, a leg swinging down off the tip. She yawned, pulling out a crumpled pack of cigarettes from one of her puffed pockets. Lighting one up, she took a long needed puff. She didn't smoke often, but she usually did it while Kajitori was taking a long awaited drink. _I wonder when I'll get my creds? _She thought to herself.

Finishing up her cigarette, Reilly flicked it aside, and leapt off the nose of her racer. Heading toward the docking bay door, the guard stopped her.

"May I ask were you're headed ma'am?" Reilly raised a brow in response.

"Ma'am?" she laughed, "Boy kiddo, you're too soft." The guard cracked a smile in return. She patted his shoulder, "Sorry I gotta do this–" with a swift punch to the gut the guard fell to the ground coughing and sputtering, "but I got some business with your cap," and with another punch to the cheek and he was out cold.

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With maps all over the ship, finding the captain was easy, or at least finding his quarters was. Walking up to the door, she glanced at its frame, unsure exactly how to open up the knob-less door. Finding a keypad next to it, there was a number pad and a large green key. _Hmm, if I were the captain of a huge ship_, what would my password be? She pressed the green key and the door quickly slid open to one side. _Heh, I'm just too good_. While most intruders hacked in to find a passcode, there were many who would be stumped by the lack of one. Over the years, too many people had become far to accustom to high tech codes. Walking in, she found the Grand Marshall sitting at a rather large desk with a monitor sitting to one side of him. Glancing up from the screen, Xaelth stared blankly at her.

"May I help you?" He questioned coldly. Reilly took out a card and tossed it on the desk.

"My creds please," she said, quickly walking over to a nearby chair and plopping down in it. Xaelth pressed a button on the console,

"Commander, have we confirmed him as the wanted traitor?"

"Yes Grand–,"

"What was that commander?"

"Um, nothing sir," Reilly smirked. Catching Xaelth's eye, she simply couldn't help but mouth, ooo feisty, at him.

"Very well then," he said, shutting off the intercom. Picking up the card, he plugged it into his computer.

"You know, for a huge empire, you guys really need to put bigger bounties on people. I mean, 200,000 is small fry."

"Here is your thousand credits," he replied callously, tossing the card back at her. Reilly caught it while standing up. "Excuse me? I believe the total should be–"

"You see miss, there are a number of expenses and paper work to deal with," Reilly stared angrily, "there are processing fees, your fuel and that food you packed up."

"Holy shit, you've got to be fucking me kiddo,"

"I'm afraid not." The two glared at one another for a moment, Reilly needed the money bad and Xaelth couldn't help but enjoy the grief he put people through. There was obviously a conflict between the two. Reilly took a step forward,

"Look kiddo, I'm not leaving here without–"

"And what exactly makes you think I would be willing to give 200,000 credits to someone of your… species?" He interrupted interlacing his fingers and resting his elbows on his broad desk, an expression of complete control across his face. Reilly raised a brow.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't try lying to me," he began, moving a hand over the sensory keyboard installed into the desktop. A window opened with Reilly's image, which quickly turned into a bright outline. Biological information listed and pointed at the outline, but under race, it furiously blinked "unknown." He turned the monitor toward Reilly, a smirk across his face.

"If you're curious, there are scanners installed all over the Harvester. Do you think I wouldn't scan someone as… blunt as yourself?"

Reilly headed toward the door, her entire body shaking with anger. All she could do from digging herself a deep hole was to leave, and leave fast.

"Oh? Leaving so soon?" Xaelth said a hint of laughter and triumph in his voice. Reilly turned and smiled. The captain raised a brow in surprise.

"You owe me 199,000 creds right?" She drew her pistol and shot the monitor. It popped and fizzled like fireworks in the 19th century. With a last bit of energy surging through it, it finally seized and simply sat filling the small room with smoke. Xaelth sat back in his chair, resting his interlaced hands across his abdomen.

"There, that should make us even," she finished with a smirk. Just as she reached the door, she glanced back at the furious commander, "by the way, it's impolite to scan people without permission kiddo, see ya' around,"

Leaving in a hurry, Reilly was still unsatisfied. _What the fuck am I supposed to do about Draken? Damnit, Jake's gonna lecture me again_. It took a bit of work getting off that hell hole called a ship. After trashing his computer, she was surprised he hadn't shot her in the back as she left. As she sped off in Kajitori, weaving and dodging the cannon fire, the ship and its captain burned into her memory. Grand Marshall Xaelth of the sixth Scytherian Acquisition Fleet, captain of the Harvester. But it was his eyes that burned the brightest._ Son of a bitch, she thought to herself_. As soon as she was out of shooting range, Reilly glanced back at the ship.

"Remember me kiddo," she whispered with a smirk, "cause I know I'll be seein' you again real soon."


	4. Chapter 3

**_Tatsuroshi-san here, just wanted to give some credit for ideas and whatnot. First off, this story WAS being written by two people, but now we're back down to just me. I still will be giving credit to my friend. He is the creator of Xaelth and the Sytherian empire... lots of love! _**

**_I also want to give some credit to a few show's and all the people that have created them. _Cowboy Bebop, ****Appleseed_, and _Firefly (Serenity)_. They are what got to start toying with the idea of space and it's inhabitants. There are probably a number of other shows that are similar but these are it for now. I'll gladly give credit if there are others later on or someone brings it to my attention. However, all characters, items, and locations are of my own (and my friend's) overactive imaginations. Anything out there that are the same or similar are coincidental._**

**_Anyway, enjoy out creation and let us know what you think at our email address... this site apparently will not let me do that unless I want to make everything Italicized and bold (it's "anonlinestory" at yahoo).  
_**

**Purgatory:**

Space, an incredible void of air and light, only the stars lined the everlasting walls of the universe. Forever man had looked up at them wondering whether or not there was life among the planets that lined our little Milky Way. Earth, the only planet that people once remembered to have blue skies and rich soils. A long time ago, people remembered peace, until they came along and sucked the life from Earth and left it for dead. Since then, human kind had been forced underground or out into space to find their way in the deep void. Three factions had formed and a never-ending war sprung from hate between them wages on.

**Chapter Three:**

Everyone of the Draken crew were pretty grouchy by the time Reilly had returned. They had a feeling that something would cause them to lose all their credits and in this case, most of them. She found Takumi, their boy genius poking away at different circuitry while Jake was off tinkering with the engines. Jake had started his lecture for saving up money, yet Reilly simply walked casually away from the docking bay, dropped off the packed food in her pockets at the mess hall, then finally ended up in the large cockpit. It had four separate consoles which four different crewmen could be stationed. However, with a crew of only five, stations were fairly spread throughout the ship. Takumi thus had rigged the front two and the back two consoles together in order for the two main pilots to control the ship. The entire front of the cockpit was completely made of a clear glass and plexi mixture; strong and secure for a huge window, yet the glass could be as thin as six inches. Like the Kajitori, the window was able to display important information, such as the location of other ships or maps to other planets. Overall however, Draken was a ship that seemed to be held together completely by duct tape and spit. She was a veteran like the Kajitori, yet unlike the newer versions, Reilly and her crew felt the controls to be much more manageable.

Finding no new bounties on the "police's" wanted list, or on any other of their many resource lists, Reilly sighed and headed toward her quarters. Weaving around wires and ducking below low pipes, she casually whistled all the way there. Reaching the door, she turned the central lock and pushed opened the heavy door. Entering the small room quickly, she closed the door and immediately headed toward the bed. The room was the size of a two bedroom apartment, yet it was completely one room with wooden curtains separating different areas. There were large windows to one side, only showing the repetitive stars shining in the black sky.

Collapsing onto her bed, Reilly laid there for a moment face down into her crumpled sheets. Turning over to her back, she turned her head slightly and gazed out the window. Whether the ship moved or sat with its broken wings, they were always the same. Reilly sighed. She missed being on a planet that could support all kinds of different life forms. She remembered gazing up at the starry night and wondering when it would be her turn to be among them. Closing her eyes, Reilly took another deep breath. She remembered the sounds of children playing in the sprinklers under the hot summer sun. She remembered when parents would foolishly chase after them, eventually slipping on the wet grass and falling. They all laughed.

Back then, no one worried whether or not the next meal would come or if someone would try and shoot them for their own benefit. Opening her eyes, Reilly sat up groggily and glanced over at her clock. She had slept for only two hours. Feeling the grit the last mission left all over her, Reilly headed for the shower. On her way there, she stopped by the sink and poured herself a glass of cold water. As she raised the cup to lips, a sudden sharp pain pierced at her back.

The pain grew sharper and amplified with each pulse. The cup crashed to the floor as Reilly soon too followed it, grabbing helplessly at her back. The pain was blinding enough to make the average person pass out from it; it felt as though her back was ripping in two. Reilly wanted to scream, yet she simply grunted loudly at the pain, as it grew more and more intense. But as suddenly as it had began, the pain subsided. Although it had felt like an eternity, from start to finish, the intense pain had lasted approximately a minute.

Reilly stayed on the floor for another few minutes, hugging her sides and her legs sprawled out. Breathing heavily, the sharpness finally passed and became a dull pain. Sitting up slowly, Reilly bit her lip as the movement made her back bite at her. After some time, she finally had made it to the bathroom. Stripping off her clothes, she entered the shower stall and blasted the hot water to nearly its highest temperature. Messaging her shoulders and upper back, Reilly allowed the heat to relax and untwist her groaning muscles and joints. Her body was riddled with scars ranging from small to large to the two largest that lay vertically over her back. Each one sat between her shoulder blade and spine. The length of the scars reached from her shoulder blades nearly down to the small of her back. The two where long, gnarled, and aged.

Her back ached for the rest of the night, yet she gritted through it. Tossing her clothes in the hamper and putting on a new pair of cargo pants and a deep red tank top, she let herself fall face first onto her bed. Turning her head toward the nightstand, a bottle of pills sat beckoning her. With a groan, she reached over for them, yet her hands just barely reached. Shifting her weight over, she took a hold of the bottle and opened it up, only to find one pill remaining. With a sigh, Reilly tossed the pill up and swallowed the bitter pain reliever down.

The pulse in her back took another hour to ease back, but once it had calmed from worse to bad, Reilly put on a pair of boots and headed for the mess hall. The cook was busy cleaning up the hall after the asteroid incident. He didn't look anything like a cook should. He wore a mechanics jumpsuit, which itself had protective gear scattered over it; ranging from gauntlets to shoulder pads to boots that reached up to his knees. Hunched over, he was about as tall as Reilly.

"Busy?" Reilly said, brushing off a chair and table. Thank god they decided to bolt down the tables. The cook glanced up at her, then staightening up, he smiled. He had messy short brown hair and bright green eyes. He was easily a foot or so taller than she was. Across the front of his neck, a wide scar ran along it. As she sat down, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and tossed the pack to her. Catching it, she tapped the pack and placed a cig to her lips. Tossing the pack back, she patted her pockets and found her metallic lighter. Lighting both cigarettes, they both silently shared the moment.

The cook pointed toward the kitchen, then toward Reilly.

"Yeah yeah, I know Glen," Reilly replied. Putting out the cigarette in a nearby ashtray, she stood up and headed over toward the open kitchen. In the very back, the sink was filled high above the brim with dishes. They spewed out to the counter and floor around it. Reilly frowned and turned toward Glen. He smiled.

"Bastard," she said with a smirk. They both laughed. As Reilly headed toward the sink, Glen tapped on the counter that separated the kitchen from the rest of the mess hall. Turning around, Reilly dodged and caught an apple that flew straight at her head. Staring down at the bright red fruit, Reilly couldn't help but smile. With a nod, she turned and wiped the apple on her shirt. About to take a bite, the ship suddenly lurched to one-side, forcing both Glen and Reilly to grab and a nearby counter to catch themselves. The ship slowly eased back into place,

"Reilly! You better get over here," Jake said into the cheap intercom system. Turning toward Glen, Reilly tossed the uneaten apple back at him.

"Looks like I'll have to take a rain check," she said jogging past him. As she ran out the sliding doors, Glen sighed and began working on the kitchen once more, only this time the mess hall was in worse shape. He sighed again.

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The halls were dimly lit by large amber lights that lined the ceiling. They blinked in a slow unison leaving the hallways in a much dimmer light between each pulse. Knowing the ships layout, Reilly could have ran all the way to the deck completely blind. Upon entering the deck, she found Takumi at the helm, attempting to steer the ship away from a number of red targets flashing on the window–  
–BOOM–

–Takumi forced the ship to one side, hoping to avoid the nearby explosion. Reilly ran up to Takumi and tapped him out of the chair. Sitting down, she strapped herself in and took a hold of the two joysticks that could precisely steer the huge vessel. There was a smaller monitor in between the joysticks that currently displayed the status of Draken.

"What the hell is going on?" She shouted to no one in particular.

"We drifted into an old debris field, which of course has a ton of F-class 380's spittin' up from it," Jake shouted sarcastically from the back console.

"Wanna tell me why the hell mines are floatin' around out here?"

"The mines are about a week old," Takumi shouted back, already at his place next to Jake and was furiously typing away at the console. "Someone from a nearby sector must have been on the run,"

Reilly glanced down at Drakan's status and it appeared grim. Impulse engines were all the ship currently had and it appeared that targeting systems were down as well. It meant that the ships cockpit window didn't light up with pretty red triangles locating what could be impending doom. Drakan was a sitting duck for ship seeking mines. Luckily the cockpit window was large enough for Reilly to see all around them except for the back thus Takumi had taken the liberty of installing cameras, however the cameras were down as well.

"We got another one coming!" Takumi shouted, still typing away. Reilly gazed out the view window, unable to see clearly through the reflected amber lights.

"Fuck! Someone shut off those damn lights!" A second later and the emergency lights shut off, revealing a land mine approximately twenty five meters away and headed straight for them. Another second later would have allowed enough time for the ship's cockpit to be completely blown off. Reilly yanked at the joysticks, forcing the ship to lurch to one side, nearly completing a barrel roll. As the ship rolled, an unlucky piece of debris had decided to float right between the two. The mine exploded against the small piece, forcing the ship completely on its side. The shock from the blast rumbled throughout the empty halls, making the ship groan from its sudden push to one side. Lucky for them, the grav-generator had simultaneously shut down, allowing the passengers inside to feel right side up, no matter how the ship twisted and turned.

Three more pulsed to life and headed straight for them. Reilly pushed at the sticks—hard. Nothing. She pulled at them and pushed again. Still nothing. The mines drifted faster and faster toward them, as Reilly frantically racked her brain for a way out of their situation. Nothing came. They would be on them in a matter of seconds and the last explosion had taken out the rest of the ship. Reilly leaned back and watched the mines come at them. She held her breath, barely hearing the screams of her crewmates, frantically attempting to snap her out of her daze. Guess this is finally–

–KABOOMBOOMBOOM–

–the deck completely filled with lights, forcing everyone to shield their eyes as the F-class 380 mines exploded all around the ship, rocking it from side to side. And as suddenly as the ship was lit up, darkness surrounded them. They were alive.

Power was out. Looking around, the captain found Takumi frantically tapping away at his console then quickly ducking down out of sight, the sound of a metal panel opening following soon after. Jake stared down at her as she stared back up at him. He opened his mouth but soon shut it. They were lucky and there wasn't any wood to knock on. The radio suddenly crackled to life.

"You–_fwizz_­–alive?" A smile spread across Reilly's face. Quickly un-strapping herself, she kicked off her seat and drifted over to Jakes station. She grabbed the receiver from the angled upper console, pushing herself "upright." She stared up at the radio hoping that the frequency was right.

"Shauron? Is that you, you old bastard?" A burst of static responded. "Damnit, Takumi I thought you said you got this thing fixed?" she said turning toward the boy sprawled on the floor beneath the console.

"I did and I also said that you'd have to replace it soon and that was about two month's ago," Reilly tapped at the communicator, another burst of static responding from it.

"I don't–_buzzfwiiiizz_–gonna tow–_fwizz_–"

That was all it took for them to breath a sigh of relief. Dull thumps of imploding mines outside the ship echoed in the halls as a sudden thunk of a metal clasp from the friendly attached itself to Draken. Luckily the friendly was an old hauler. Something made simply for lugging around ships or other such cargo. Like the Draken, it was an elderly one, yet with a crew of genius' the ship worked like any other modern day one.

Hanging the receiver back up, Reilly sighed with a grin. They were lucky, and boy was she gonna hear it from Shauron. The sounds of more clamps attaching to Draken echoed throughout the ship. One of the ships exterior access ways squeaked open further down the hallway. Jake stared at her, unsure of whether to be happy or on alert. Takumi paused for a moment, glancing at Reilly with a smile. Turning toward the exit, hands in her pockets, Reilly kicked off the ceiling. She performed a somersault in the air then stopped at the doorway and turning to her crewmates with a grin.

"Looks like we've got ourselves some guests,"


End file.
